I finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy last week – an amazing novel for the ‘globally warmed generation’ – very dark and bleak tale of a man and his young son walking though a world destroyed by humans (I presumed a nasty combination of resource depletion + climatic change resulting in a global nuclear war scenario). The book was spellbindingly well written in very poetic prose but now I am left with terrible images and even more fear about the future of our species doing everything it can to ensure we destroy the environment which supports us.

Last week I attended a very good conference entitled “Agriculture 2050: a day considering the options for local agricultural & food production after fossil fuels have run out and climate change is really here.” (hosted by South West Rural Update) with some of our new neighbours from Trelay but by tea-break time I was feeling pretty hopeless and tearful and turned to speak to my new friend (and new neighbour) Jude and asked ‘How do you stop from feeling negative and full of worry once you’ve taken on board the fact that we are, as a species, hurtling towards even more starvation, water shortages, overheated climate, deforestation, polluted seas and so on?’

Jude’s answer (and I could tell she knew exactly what I was talking about) was that when she was once sitting on a beautiful beach thinking nothing but nihilistic thoughts she suddenly realised that she was not able to enjoy the beauty of her surroundings because of what was in her mind and then made a decision to change her way of thinking and concentrate on the present day and what she could influence each day rather than imagining terrible futures. A lifetime of happy todays results in a happy lifetime. A lifetime of thinking of the future results in feeling unfulfilled.

She also pointed out that whatever an individual does to ensure survival of their own family is not guaranteed and nobody knows who’s ancestors will live and whose won’t so its better not to get caught up in a survivalist mentality. The theme of the novel I read last week was surviving against the odds but actually I question whether many of us would want to exist in a world where absolutely everything had been destroyed. I think I’d rather not. I can’t even face going to watch the film of The Road when it is released this year let alone live it.

The last thing Jude introduced me to was something I will investigate further as it may just be the antidote to terrible thoughts which is the concept of ‘Earth Healing’. As an staunch, atheist, non-spiritual type I’m not usually drawn to things which sound ‘hippyish’ but it did sound as if there is a growing movement of people involved in supporting one another especially with regard to ‘post-petroleum stress disorders’ and nice things like massage and group singing are probably really lovely ways to connect with other people who share your own worries and also giving thanks for the amazing world we do reside in. I’d also like to find out about how to help children how have a much better understanding that their world is not being looked after for their adulthood.

‘Earth Stewardship’ and permaculture are often cited as being SOLUTIONS to The Problems. For this reason we are both looking forward to learning about permaculture design at Bristol’s Windmill Hill City Farm in a few weekend’s time and also putting permaculture designed agriculture in place at Trelay.